Artificial Intelligence is now showing wonders in the medical field also. An Australian tech expert used AI to defeat his beloved pet dog’s terminal cancer and created a unique personalized mRNA vaccine. With this effort the size of the dog’s tumor was reduced by more than half. This story is spreading rapidly on social media and is surprising people at the extraordinary capabilities of AI.
Sydney tech expert Paul Cunningham adopted rescue dog Rosie in 2019. In 2024, Rosie was diagnosed with aggressive mast cell cancer. Veterinary doctors told that he only had a few months left. Even after spending thousands of dollars on conventional treatment and chemotherapy, there was no significant improvement. Not giving up, Paul, without any biology or medical background, took the help of AI and found a way to cure himself.
Preparation of vaccine started with the help of AI
Paul started a conversation with ChatGPT. He made a detailed plan regarding immunotherapy and personalized mRNA vaccine with AI. Then a sample of Rosie’s tumor was taken and DNA sequencing was done at UNSW’s Ramaciotti Center for Genomics. The genomic data obtained was analyzed with AI tools. AlphaFold played an important role in the identification of mutated proteins. On this basis the entire blueprint of the vaccine was prepared.
Main cause of cancer?
After DNA sequencing of the tumor, the data was processed with various algorithms and pipelines. This made the mutations responsible for cancer clear. The AI guided Paul in the right direction by explaining complex medical research papers and literature in a matter of hours. Using this information, a personalized mRNA vaccine was designed, which trains the immune system to attack cancer cells.
Positive results after vaccination
Last year, the vaccine was administered to Rosie around Christmas. Within a few weeks the size of the tumor reduced by more than half. Getting ethics approval and permission for drug trials was more challenging than making the vaccine. For this, Paul had to work two hours a day for three months and prepare a detailed document of about 100 pages.
Praise from big names in the tech world
Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, wrote on This was the first personalized cancer vaccine designed for a dog. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis described AlphaFold as the beginning of the future of digital biology. Perplexity CEO Arvind Srinivas also said that AI based biology research can bring revolutionary changes in the future. This story shows how powerful a tool AI can become in the hands of common people. Paul is now trying to make this technology available to other dogs.
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